#5 No Government, No Worries

After reading both sources I started to understand what a “political philosophy” was, and how important it is just to understand your opinion on the subject. Think about it in the since of, you’re only gaining from learning this about yourself. The sooner you realize your specific political philosophy, the earlier you can attempt to make changes in this world. Personally, I had to analyze the Wikipedia document a few more times, to fully understand the foundation of the term “political philosophy.” Because before you walk you have to learn how to crawl.

In addition, ended up realizing something I have never before, and that is my political philosophy. I had no idea how to put this into words – until today. “In a vernacular sense, the term "political philosophy" often refers to a general view, or specific ethic, political belief or attitude, about politics that does not necessarily belong to the technical discipline of philosophy,” from Wikipedia. This is the statement that stood out to me, because it related to me in all aspects. I’m a citizen that when I hear “political philosophy,” I now think of “anarchist” myself. I believe all parts of the government should be abolished, and non-existing. We have been in this game we call “life” for generations now, and the government is only holding us back from reaching our dreams sooner.

In conclusion, Michael Benton, the author of “My Understanding of Anarchism 3.0,” helped me fill in the necessary gaps to fully complete my opinion on the subject. “Instead of our current economic system that values things over people and profits over places, anarchists value people/places over profits. Money is an illusion, a powerful one that has real effects in the world, but an illusion nonetheless.” Money should not be our main focus in this world, and there should be no government to say anything different.  

#4 Political Compass Test

#3 Developing as a Nation

The three sources of information were something that should have been influential to every audience. Because this information keeps citizens aware of why they should be proud of the country they live in, and grateful for the world that surrounds it. Without this view, many would not grasp the struggles we are facing today and more importantly, the struggles many had to face to get to where we are today. These people from the past (18^th century and before) deserve more creditability than anyone else that left an impact on this nation, because without them we wouldn’t even have had a foundation to impact. These geniuses lead other special individuals to become heroes, and more importantly a part of our nation’s history. Inside the Wikipedia article was a vivid description of how our foundation was built, how we developed as a nation, and how the world became to bloom from here on. Known as the “Age of Reason,” this is when the 18^th century intellectuals became planting the seeds to a brighter future.

On the other hand, the two clips gave awareness to its audience. About the situations we are in today as nation, and how we are going about these issues. How we are not necessarily planning head but instead, doing as little as possible. Our nation is not using a huge percentage of their brain to think of the future just as much as today. To truly move forward successfully we need to start centering our ideas more on the future. Like Alan Lakein said, “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” We can then focus on other influential things, like school, and improve every grade levels test scores. Therefore, generations will pass and we will only be ahead of our time rather than barely surviving the present.

#2 Persuasion At Its Fullest

Douglas Rushkoff made his audience indulge in his piece, “They Say.” From the first statistic stated in the introduction to the last sentence of the conclusion that summed up the entire idea.  After breaking down the first paragraph I could already almost trust this author with my life. Rushkoff had enough logos in his piece to really make his readers understand that he knew what “persuasion” was all about. The way he used rhetorical questions to keep the audience thinking, was already a persuasion tactic at its best. “Who, exactly, are "they," and why do they say so much? More amazing, why do we listen to them?” The author purposely related to not just a specific crowd of people, but instead to every individual in some way. From the pretty young "sales associate" at the Gap, to authorities or a boss any of us can relate too.

In addition, the author ends up using the other two vital key terms when trying to persuade someone – pathos and ethos. Rushkoff has the authority to talk about this subject from writing books, and emotionally tying in anecdotes and facts to keep the audience reading. For the record, that’s only how you keep someone truly interested and not just flipping through pages to look for pictures or even worse, just putting the book down. It was truly like a timeline in a since, with all the information related from generations to generations. “Best of all, young people were the ones leading the charge. Adults were immigrants to the new realm of interactive media, but kids raised with joysticks in their hands were natives...What media can you use to manipulate a kid when he is already more media literate than you are?” I personally applaud the author for his extra effort to help the readers better understand how they are getting persuaded each and every day.  It keeps others brainstorming and curious from then on. Cause even when you don’t expect it, persuasion is being used daily in some shape or form. But it is your job to willingly give the additional time to look for any sort of persuasion, like Douglas Rushkoff did.

#1 Establishing Evolution

In Michael Ryan’s article “Summary: Theory for Beginners,” the author pushes the readers to have an idea of how knowledge is formed. Almost every point in this article is highly accurate in the numerous ways it goes about explaining the definition of each idea.  Giving daily life anecdotes to show how each individual are impacted in their own life.  While creating a broader picture for the general public to show how we have improved from the past to the present. “Because we no longer grow our own food or hunt our own animals for meat, we humans have evolved the ability to attain survival through civil institutions such as money and commerce that guarantee the same ends but by more symbolic and meditated means.” The examples it used while telling us in detail each theory helped my understanding. This made me engage more in the text, and personally think how this has influenced my life till this day. More importantly, these theories in this article gave me a better idea of how I can change myself to become a more improved individual. “For that post-natural civilization to work, however, we must be able to trust one another to behave in certain ways. Laws ensure that, but so do norms that we learn and that aid us in being self-regulating. And culture teaches norms.”  In addition, Michael Ryan provides background and history information needed to get a better grasp on the subject matter. “Most of what we take for granted as human cultural characteristics, such as our pictorial abilities, are only thousands rather than millions of years old, unlike our species itself. They came into being a few thousand years ago.” In conclusion, the author overall did an excellent job showing the gradual development of life, from a simple to a more complex form.